The Vampire Awakenings Bundle: Books 1-5

by Davies, Brenda K.

  The heavy metal door smashed against the wall, shattering plaster and twisting the door’s hinges. She leapt down the first flight of stairs without touching a single step. Her feet hit the floor; her forward momentum caused her to slam off the wall and bounce toward the next stairwell. Grabbing hold of the banister, she took another staggering step before regaining her balance.

  Terror for Ian drove her to preternatural speeds she’d never imagined attaining. She leapt over the banister and landed noiselessly on the landing below. Stumbling to the door, she fumbled at the knob as another resounding crash shook the building. Screams of frightened humans echoed down the hallway. Ian’s agony lanced through her skull, temporarily blinding her with the white light exploding in her head that accompanied it. Unwilling to be deterred, she flung the door open and bounded into the hallway.

  She came to an abrupt halt when she spotted the disarray and destruction everywhere. Across from her, the elevator doors had caved in to the point she could see across the shaft to the concrete wall on the other side. Blood smeared the silver doors that repeatedly dinged as if they were opening and closing. The body of a headless vampire was propped against the doors, she recognized the bloodstained blue shirt of the man who had first rushed them. Having his head hanging half off must not have been enough to kill him, but Ian had finished the job. She had no idea where his head was, but she had a feeling if she looked down the elevator shaft she would find it.

  A door down the hall cracked open, an eye pressed against the slit. “Run,” the woman whispered before slamming the door closed again. The locks of the woman’s room sliding into place echoed in the hall.

  That was helpful, Paige mused as she surveyed the blood stained carnage of the hall. Two more bodies littered the floor with one missing his heart. The other had a giant piece of wood, from a broken hall table, shoved through his chest. The scent of the blood caused her fangs to tingle as she stared up and down the strangely tranquil hallway.

  Where the hell was Ian? She wondered as she examined the closed doors lining the hallway. She could feel him nearby; his mind brushed against hers as she moved down the hall in search of him and the vampires she knew he battled. She may not have any sort of instinctual pull to her piece of shit father, but she could feel the incessant pull of Ian. The sound of crashes and bangs shook the walls and made the floor shake beneath her feet, but all of the different rooms made it difficult to pinpoint where Ian and the others were.

  Another door creaked open at the other end of the hall, before closing again. A woman began to scream incessantly from one of the rooms at the end closest to her. In this area, some of the doors along the hall had been shattered to reveal the rooms beyond, but she didn’t go for one of those.

  Instead, she stopped at a closed door, lifted her foot and smashed it into the door. Panic, and her enhanced abilities, made her far stronger than she’d realized. Wood splintered and flew straight back into the room, tearing out part of the doorframe with it. The half-dressed woman within the room screamed, a man threw himself behind a couch. Paige snagged a broken piece of wood off the floor as she ran through the sitting room to the bedroom beyond.

  Blood splattered the room; the glass of the balcony doors had exploded outward to allow the hot desert air to blow in. The breeze ruffled the curtains causing their blood coated bottoms to flutter into the room. She ran through the bathroom and smashed into the door adjoining the room beyond. The door gave way far easier than she’d anticipated. She stumbled and almost fall to the floor, but her instincts helped her to catch herself in time.

  Straightening herself, she spun to the sound of a fist pummeling flesh. Finally, blessedly, her eyes landed on Ian fending off three vampires at once. His golden hair had become a crimson color; blood dripped from it to splatter onto the bed he stood upon. The jagged tear marring his cheek was so deep she could see the white glint of his cheekbone beneath and some of his upper teeth. His skin had taken on the devilish, reddish-black hue she’d seen before. The whites of his eyes had veins of red leading into the vivid ruby colored centers of them.

  One of the vampires he fought took a staggering step away from him when Ian focused on him. Ian swung out with his arm, caught the vamp under the chin, and snapped his head back with enough force to knock the vampire on his ass. Another vampire swung out and sliced Ian’s side open, spilling his blood and revealing his ribs beneath.

  A shout of rage escaped her. Adjusting her hold on her makeshift stake, she leapt forward to tear into one of the vampires attacking him. A blur of motion drew her attention to the left a second before something hit her in the side with the force of a charging bull. The cracking of her ribs reverberated through the room before she was smashed into the wall. White plaster rained down around her; it coated her lashes to the point where she couldn’t see for a few seconds. Agony lanced through her side; she tried to inhale, but the broken pieces of her ribs scraping together inside of her left lung made it impossible for her to draw a deep breath.

  “Paige!” Ian bellowed.

  Her vision finally cleared as she blinked away the last of the debris. She found herself face to face with a set of brown eyes she’d despised for years. “Hello Paige,” the man across from her purred. “How is my lovely daughter tonight?”

  Years of training had taught her to retain her calm in a deadly situation, but violent images of leaping on him and shredding the skin from his face danced through her mind. The anger filling her caused her fangs to extend of their own accord. A thud sounded behind her, the wall shook, but Paige held her father’s gaze. To look away would only spell her death.

  “You’ve definitely gone through some changes,” he continued with an amused sparkle in his eyes. Paige shifted her hold on the jagged piece of wood in her hand; her arm had bent behind her and become pinned when she’d been slammed into the wall. “Did you honestly think becoming one of us would help you to beat me?”

  Red filled Ian’s vision; the entire room was coated in it, yet everything around him became sharper, more enhanced. He could move faster, smell and hear better, and more than that, he was stronger. The minute the man had laid his hands on Paige, pure fury had burst over him, but so had a single minded determination to destroy everyone who was a risk to her.

  Grabbing hold of the vampire who had made the mistake of being wary of him, Ian wrenched his head completely around. He snatched the man’s writhing body up and smashed it against one of the others. They fell back from the blow, tumbling off the bed and onto the floor. The man in his hands kicked frantically; strangled mewls of protest and panic emitted from him. Ian smashed his body down, placed his foot on the man’s broken neck, and jerked forcefully back on the feet in his hands. A wrenching sound accompanied the man’s head being torn from his body. Blood sprayed across the room from the headless body as Ian heaved it away from him.

  A loud grunt sounded from behind Paige, blood burst over the walls around them, turning the cream color of the room a garish pink color. Her stomach turned at the display, but her eyes remained on father. Ian’s mind danced across the perimeter of hers; he was injured and incensed, but alive.

  “I didn’t think of you at all,” she replied.

  “Oh, Paige.” His index finger slipped underneath her chin and lifted it up. “You’ve thought of me every day of your pathetic existence.”

  Paige’s nostrils flared, but she refused to let him goad her into reacting recklessly. He leaned toward her, which was what she’d been waiting for. With him off balance, she lunged forward and smashed her forehead off of his nose. Stars burst before her eyes, but she’d been prepared for them. He hadn’t been prepared for his nose to be shattered or for her to attack in such a way.

  A snarl escaped her; she followed the head butt up with an elbow that carried the full force of her weight behind it. Her ribs may be broken, but she could feel them healing already and rage fueled her now. She’d been waiting for years to kill this man; she didn’t care what it took, or how much torme
nt she had to endure in order to succeed in doing so.

  His left cheekbone caved beneath the force of her blow; his eye bulged grotesquely from his broken eye socket. She leapt forward, pouncing on him and taking him down while he was off guard. She swung out with the piece of wood, driving it toward his heart. It had just broken through the skin of his chest when he flung his arm up to block her. He knocked her hand away with so much force her wrist went numb, and the makeshift stake flew from her hand.

  Her father grabbed hold of her numbed wrist and squeezed with enough force a bone snapped in it. She bit back a cry of pain, refusing to give him the satisfaction of hearing her scream again. Ignoring the pain, her upper lip curled into a sneer as she flung herself away from him. She pulled her foot back and drove it into his face. Fresh blood spilled from his now pancaked nose. When she went to kick him again, he seized hold of her foot and shoved her leg back at her so hard her knee bashed off of her nose and caused blood to burst free. Twisting to the side, Paige managed to wrench herself from his grasp and shove herself to her feet.

  Ian grabbed hold of the last vampire trying to keep him from Paige and drove his fangs deep into the man’s throat. Blood gushed into his mouth. The vampire howled as he beat and clawed at him. The man’s anguish resonated in his head; he ignored it as he continued to feed in deep pulls that rapidly drained the man and replenished the massive amounts of blood he’d lost.

  Thrusting the man away from him, Ian lifted his foot and smashed it into his ribcage. The man’s bones crushed and collapsed beneath his weight compressing his chest. Arms and legs flailed and beat at him and the ground, but Ian continued relentlessly onward until he’d flattened the man’s chest and crushed his ribcage to the floor. Arms and legs stopped kicking when his heart was stomped beneath Ian’s boot.

  He spun toward Paige in time to see her father rush at her with his shoulders down. She slammed her clamped hands into his back as he wrapped his arms around her waist and propelled her backward. They crashed into the wall with enough force that it gave way with a shuddery crash. Drywall and wooden beams snapped like twigs beneath the force of their impact as they toppled into the room next door.

  Ian’s heart leapt into his throat when he lost sight of her. He raced through the doorway to find Paige and her father rolling across the floor, both trying to get the upper hand on the other. They flipped in a rapid blur of motion across the blood drenched cream carpet beneath them. Paige somehow managed to get her knees in between them; with a shout, she flipped her father over her head. A loud grunt escaped him as he crashed down on top of the glass coffee table. The legs of the table flew into the air; glass shattered under his body.

  Paige bounded to her feet, grabbed hold of a broken leg and dove at her father. Adrenaline surged through Ian as he lunged toward them at the same time Paige landed on her father. Spinning around, her father threw back his arm and slapped her across the face. Her head shot to the side, the scent of her blood permeated his nostrils as her cheek was split open. Ian’s roar would have made a lion cower, but the blow hadn’t knocked off Paige’s downward trajectory. She drove the piece of wood into his chest and twisted ferociously.

  Her father grunted; his arms and legs kicked straight up in the air. His hands snatched her hair and jerked her head to the right as Ian arrived at her side. Drawing his foot back, Ian kicked the man in the temple, caving the bone of his cheek and temple in more. Blood spurted from his blown out eye socket and temple. Ian grabbed hold of Paige’s arm, but before he could draw her away, she slammed her hands onto the piece of wood protruding from her father’s chest.

  She slid from her father’s slack grip as he began to shake and convulse from the death throes wracking him. Paige took a stumbling step back; he caught her before she could fall to the floor. Lowering her down, Ian knelt before her. He pulled her arms out to rapidly inspect her before grasping hold of her chin. Blood trickled from her nose and cheek. Her breath rattled in and out due to her broken ribs and punctured lung.

  “Are you ok?” he demanded.

  Her gaze remained fixed on the man behind him; the man whose feet still kicked out the rhythm of death against the floor. The broken expression on her face tore at his heart. Careful not to jar her ribs, he cradled her against his chest. “It’s ok baby,” he whispered. “It’s over now.”

  “It’s over,” she whispered. Tears slid down her cheeks, her lower lip trembled, but her dazed eyes finally met his. “It’s over.”

  It felt almost too good to be true, but she couldn’t deny her father’s body lay across from her. Couldn’t deny that the man who had haunted every one of her nightmares over the years was finally dead. She’d believed she’d feel more relief, more joy. Instead, she felt strangely numb and torn. She was a murderess, and more than that, she’d just committed patricide. Should she hate herself? Should she be happy?

  “Paige don’t,” Ian whispered when he sensed her chaotic thoughts. Lifting her cheeks in his hand, he bent and pressed a tender kiss against her lips. “Don’t beat yourself up; don’t doubt yourself. You did what you had to do.”

  “Did I?”

  “Yes, you did,” he whispered. He pushed the hair back from her face and kissed her more vigorously. Pulling his arm away, he bit into his wrist and held it out to her. She shook her head at him and tried to push his arm away. “Feed,” he commanded.

  “I fed from you earlier and you need it, you’re wounded.” The gash on his cheek had already healed enough she couldn’t see his teeth, and his ribs no longer showed on his side, but she knew how badly he’d been maimed.

  “I’ve fed and you’re more important.”

  She opened her mouth to protest, but the steel will of his mind against hers silenced her words. He would not back down on this. Taking hold of his wrist, she lifted it to her mouth. She licked away his blood before biting deep to reopen his bite. His happiness filled her mind; his blood slid down her throat as he held her head tenderly against him. The strength of his blood seeped into her system, accelerating the healing process of the numerous injuries she’d sustained.

  The sound of feet approaching caused him to shift his hold on her as he spun toward the doorway. He crouched into a defensive position. He scented the air, but the cloying scent of blood had been burned into his nostrils and covered all other scents. His lips skimmed back to reveal his fangs, a low hiss escaped him as he prepared for a fresh attack.

  Ethan skidded into the doorway and came to an abrupt halt. His eyes widened when they landed upon him, before darting around to take in the destruction of the room. Ian’s muscles relaxed at the sight of his brother. With his mind, he urged Paige to keep feeding as he turned her away so the others couldn’t see her. It may be necessary for her to feed right now, but it was still an intimate act he didn’t wish to share with his family.

  “What happened?” Ethan demanded.

  “We were ambushed the second the elevator doors opened.” Ian wrapped his arm around Paige’s shoulders and pulled her closer against his side when she released his wrist.

  She wiped his blood from her mouth and gave a brief nod when he sent her a questioning look. “I’m fine. I feel better already.”

  He believed she’d had enough; he could feel an easing in her discomfort, and her breath had stopped rattling in and out. Ronan’s boots rang on the floor when he strode in behind Ethan. His eyes were crimson in color as he surveyed the death littering the room. “Your father?” he inquired of her.

  Paige nodded and waved a hand at his body. “I killed him.”

  He gave a brisk nod. “This must be taken care of, at once. The police are on their way. We don’t have much time. Aiden, David, and Brian are taking care of the witnesses and erasing the memories of the people hiding in their rooms.”

  “Cameras?” Ian inquired.

  “Your attackers have taken care of those for us, thankfully.”

  “There may be some in the stairwell,” Paige said. “I came down the stairs, and I’m sure the
re was a camera on the elevator. There was also a woman above, she was locked out of her room, but I kept my head turned away from her. I don’t think she got a good look at me.”

  “I’ll make sure my man takes care of the cameras, and we’ll find her. I’m not taking any chances on this,” Ronan replied.

  “What causes our skin color to change like that?” Ethan inquired as his gaze ran over the mottled color of Ian’s skin.

  “It happens to all purebreds if they’re pushed to a breaking point,” Ronan replied. “It’s the ones who don’t have someone, or something to come back for, you have to worry about.” Ian’s hand tightened around Paige’s when she pressed closer against him. “Now, are the bodies in the hall and in here all of them?”

  “No,” Ian answered. “There’s another in a room down the hall and a head in the elevator shaft.”

  Well, she’d been right in her guess about the head.

  “I don’t think we’re getting the head back.” Ronan pulled out his phone and typed a message. He stared at it until it released a small beep. “It’s been taken care of.” Paige gaped at his words, she never wanted to get on his bad side if he could type a message and have someone retrieve a head for him. “Where’s the other body?”

  Through the bond connecting them, Paige could feel Ian’s concern for her before he looked at her. “I’m fine, this has to be done,” she told him as the wail of approaching sirens filled the air.

  Ian hesitated before rising to his feet. “Come with me,” he said to Ronan. “Ethan stay here. You’ll need Aiden and Brian to help with this mess, I’ll send them in.”

  She barely saw Ian run from the room with Ronan right behind him. Her legs shook a little as she rose to her feet, but she took a deep breath and squared her shoulders. Her ribs still ached, her wrist was still sore, but she could feel the healing power of Ian’s blood seeping through her system and repairing her body.